


A Brighter Day is Dawning

by You_Are_Constance



Series: Glimya One-Shots [1]
Category: Anastasia - Flaherty/Ahrens/McNally
Genre: Clothes Shopping, Fluff, Ice Cream, Other, Shopping, ha i pretend i'm funny, i try to title but it doesn't always work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:55:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27987315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/You_Are_Constance/pseuds/You_Are_Constance
Summary: Dimitri finds out the disastrous.Anya and Gleb have never once in their life been shoppingdun dun dun
Relationships: Dimitri | Dmitry/Anya | Anastasia Romanov/Gleb Vaganov
Series: Glimya One-Shots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2049825
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	A Brighter Day is Dawning

**Author's Note:**

> for (and inspired by) @i-ll-be-the-moon and @sidonidoneeey on tumblr
> 
> idk if those lyrics for the title fit with the story at all but whatever
> 
> Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays!

“Wait,” said Dimitri, not quite believing what he was hearing. “So you’re telling me neither of you have ever been _shopping_?”

Both Anya and Gleb looked at him strangely.

“It’s a waste of time,” Gleb insisted. “Keeps you from getting to more important tasks.”

“I’ve never exactly had the money,” Anya added, “you haven’t either, Dimitri.”

“Spending money isn’t the point!” Dimitri exclaimed. “Shopping is to look, not to buy, though buying could be a plus...”

Neither responded.

“Tell me you’ve at least been clothes shopping.” He looked at their hesitant expressions. “That’s it,” he decided, starting to walk out.

“Where are you going?” Anya asked, standing up and starting to follow after him.

“You two get ready to leave,” he said, pointing at them. “I’ll be right back.”

He left their small flat and headed down the street.

He pounded at the door when he arrived.

“Vlad!” he yelled. “I need your help!”

He waited and continued pounding at the door until it slid open into the flat.

Vlad stood there in the doorway, looking as if he had just barely woken up.

“Dimitri, do you realize the time?”

Dimitri looked down at his watch. "It's... seven-thirty?"

“And I never wake until nine at the earliest. Goodbye, Dimitri.” He started to close the door but Dimitri shoved his arm in the way and pried it open.

“Vlad! It’s urgent!”

Vlad let out a sigh and let Dimitri come inside.

“What is so urgent that you have to wage me up at this hour?”

“Anya and Gleb have never been shopping.”

Vlad looked at him expectantly. “Is that all?”

“They’ve never been shopping, Vlad.”

“And how is that my problem?”

“I’d like to take them shopping,” Dimitri explained slowly. “And I need to borrow some money.”

Vlad raised an eyebrow. “The last time I let you borrow money from me—“

“Oh shush Vlad!” Lily barged into the room. “This could be fun!” She turned to Dimitri. “If you’ll just give us some time to get ready—“

“Wait, you’re not coming—“ Dimitri exclaimed.

“Of course we are,” Lily insisted. “I wouldn’t miss something like this.”

“You can’t be there,” Dimitri repeated.

“I’m afraid that’s what it must be, dear,” said Lily. “If you want money from us, that is.”

Dimitri tried to find some way to argue, but he knew he’d lost.

“Here’s the deal,” Vlad began. “Lily and I will come, but leave you and your partners alone for the most part. You’ll be on your own, but Lily and I still get to get a laugh out of it. And in return...”

“We let you spend as much as you wish,” Lily added when Vlad hesitated.

“Deal,” said Dimitri before either of them could take it back.

“Wait, Lily!” Vlad exclaimed, but Lily had disappeared back into the hallway she had appeared from. Vlad followed her. Dimitri stood in his same place for a little while, then decided to leave a note to let them know where to meet them, then he started back towards home.

Anya and Gleb were still looking confused when he refused, but at least they were dressed to go out.

“You ready to go?” Dimitri asked them.

“You haven’t even told us where we’re going,” Anya protested.

“And you haven’t guessed it yet?”

Anya and Gleb glanced at each other, then shook their heads.

“You aren’t making any sense, Mitya,” Gleb mumbled.

“It’ll all make sense in a little bit,” Dimitri assured them. “Now are you ready to go?”

They shrugged this time, and Dimitri took hold of both of their hands. Gleb barely had time to close the door behind them before Dimitri was leading them away.

When they had arrived at the shopping center that Dimitri had planned for them to go for the day, he saw that Lily and Vlad had already arrived. They nodded at him from afar while Anya and Gleb seemed to be in awe of everything going on around them.

Dimitri let go of their hands and turned around to face them.

“And this is just the surface.” He smiled, then took their hands and led them inside.

“Where do you want to go first?” he asked, glancing at them, but neither of them could seem to respond. “No preference? This way, then.”

He led them to a clothes shop that was nearby, pushing them both inside.

“Go crazy,” he told them. “Try on anything you want.”

They both walked a couple steps inside, then turned back around.

“Why exactly is this necessary?” Gleb asked, studying the shop.

“It’s not! That’s the whole point!”

Dimitri let out a loud sigh as he took Gleb’s hand and led him to the back of the shop, Anya following behind. Dimitri glanced around, taking all sorts of clothes of similar size, shirts, jackets, everything he could see, and stacking it in Gleb’s arms.

“Go try those on,” Dimitri urged, pushing a confused Gleb into a changing room. He turned back to Anya. "Your turn."

There was a much larger—and more colorful—selection of clothes for Anya. Dimitri was a bit more selective on what he gave to Anya to try on since he had the option to be.

“Now you go try those on.” He pushed her into another dressing room, then yelled to both her and Gleb, “And make sure you come out so I can see how you look in them!”

Dimitri leaned against a wall to wait for them to come out, already exhausted by their lack of culture. He met Vlad’s gaze from across the shop, shooting the man a death glare that clearly read: _stay away._

He may not be able to do anything about making Vlad and Lily go away and leave them alone, but he sure wasn’t going to let them ruin this for Gleb and Anya. Or him, for that matter.

Dimitri turned his attention back to the dressing rooms when he heard a door open, Gleb slowly stepping out.

Dimitri could swear he felt his heart stop.

This whole ‘shopping’ idea turned out to be much better than he could have imagined.

Gleb looked slightly uncomfortable standing there, the most adorable, awkward half-smile on his face as his dark hair—which was getting quite long—hung in his eyes.

The clothes themselves had less of an effect on Dimitri as Gleb's reaction to them did.

“Yeah, we’re getting that one,” Dimitri breathed. “Go try on another.”

“Why aren’t you participating?”

“I’ve been shopping before, Gleb,” Dimitri shrugged. “This time is for you and Anya to experience it.”

“But if you like this whole ‘shopping’ thing so much, you might as well participate,” Gleb offered.

Dimitri nodded. “You go try something else on. I’ll gather some stuff for myself.”

Dimitri did try on a few things, but mostly he kept his load much smaller than he usually would have. This trip was for Gleb and Anya.

Vlad passed Dimitri what would hopefully be enough money for this part of the trip while both Gleb and Anya were still in the dressing rooms.

Each time they came out wearing something new, Dimitri could feel his heart pounding even harder.

How did he ever get so lucky?

They eventually finished up with that part, purchasing almost everything that they’d tried on.

“Are you sure about this, Dimitri?” Anya asked, eying the price tag on some of the items. “We don’t really need any of it…”

“That’s the point!” he reminded them. “We don’t need any of this, but we’ll get it anyway.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Gleb insisted. “Why would we get something we don’t need?”

“Because it’s _fun_ Gleb!”

Without listening to any more of their protests, Dimitri bought it all, giving each of them a bag or two to carry.

“Is that it?” Anya asked, glancing around as they left the shop.

“Not even close.”

They went around the shopping center, visiting almost every shop. They spent an especially long time in the bookstore, as well as buying decorations for their flat, blankets, pretty much anything they saw.

Dimitri and Gleb had both insisted on getting some sort of jewelry for Anya. They had eventually decided on a simpler, silver necklace with deep blue gemstones, that truly looked beautiful on her.

Anything looked beautiful on Anya, though.

They had visited just about every shop in the shopping center by that point, and Dimitri only had one thing left to do.

He took them for ice cream.

Dimitri himself ordered chocolate ice cream, Anya ordered Oreo, and Gleb—to nobody’s surprise—ordered vanilla.

“Seriously?” Dimitri scoffed. “Vanilla?”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s boring.”

“Gleb, pick another flavor,” Anya said gently.

“No.”

“You’re boring,” said Dimitri, but he ordered it nonetheless, and when Gleb wasn’t looking, he and Anya added rainbow sprinkles to his ice cream, just to add _something_ to the plain, boring vanilla.

“Seriously?” Gleb deadpanned. Dimitri clamped a hand over his mouth to keep from bursting out laughing. “Very mature.”

Gleb finished it anyway.

Then there came the struggle of getting it all back home.

Somehow—Dimitri wasn’t entirely sure how—they managed it.

When they were back home, they all began to unpack and sort out everything they’d bought, hoping that there was enough room in their small flat for it all.

Then there was a knock at the door. Dimitri—who was the least buried in _stuff_ —went to answer it.

He entered the hallway and closed the door behind himself when he saw it was Vlad and Lily who stood there.

“I hope you’re happy, Dimitri,” Vlad said grumpily. “I don’t know if I’ll ever financially recover from that.”

“Oh you,” Lily sighed. “We'll be fine. We certainly enjoyed ourselves, hopefully, you did too."

“Was it all really _that_ entertaining?”

“Oh, certainly,” Lily assured him. “But you’ve taught them well. We’ll be on our way.”

“Thank you,” said Dimitri, leaning over and wrapping his arms around both of them. “I could never have done with without you.”

“Ah, go back to them,” Vlad encouraged him. “It was our pleasure.”

The two of them left, and Dimitri entered the flat again.

“Who was that?” Anya asked as she snipped a few tags off the clothes they bought.

“Just a couple of visitors who went on their way,” Dimitri answered, crouching down beside them both. “So how did you like a shopping day?”

**Author's Note:**

> i swear making that last line rhyme was an accident
> 
> ha hoped you all liked it! (kudos/comments appreciated but pls don't swear)


End file.
